Dear Kamuro People,
How are you, everyone?
I would like to contribute in several reports from now to past what I newly got to know in this year about my ancestors and circumstances at that time in Okikamuro.
I am very sorry that I have to revise my previous reports in several points.
My great grandfather Isuke Tomozawa was born in 1873 as the second son of Heihachi Noguchi, a resident of Tononyu. Isuke was adopted as a son of Moto, the widow of Hikoshichi VIII who was the 8th generation head of the Okikamuro Tomozawa Family, on her deathbed in March 1880. He seems to be raised by Kyuhachi, the 9th generation head who was adopted into Ninomiya Family in 1878.
According to Towa Town History Book, Heihachi was appointed to the Kurogashira (vise village chief) of Tononyu around 1872.
Why was Isuke chosen as the successor of Tomozawa Family? The most probable reason is that Isuke would be a descendant of Tomozawa Family. In that case, his real father Heihachi or his real mother had to be a descendant of Tomozawa Family. If Heihachi was a brother of Kyuhachi (i.e., a son of Hikoshichi VIII) and was adopted into Noguchi Family, Isuke was a nephew of Kyuhachi. The name Heihachi, which seems to be unfamiliar as the Noguchi Family member, has some resemblance to the name Kyuhachi. Otherwise, Isuke’s real mother might have been a daughter of Hikoshichi VIII, though there is no information about her.
I sent a mail to Noguchi Family’s temple and asked about Heihachi, one of my real forefather. According to the chief priest, Heihachi died in January 1880, just before Isuke was adopted into Tomozawa Family. Such a situation must have been very anxious for a seven-year-old boy.
According to the chief priest, there is no descendant of the Noguchi Family in Tononyu. Therefore, it seems to be difficult to get additional information about Heihachi.
In “The History of Amagasaki City Vol. 6”, Heizaemon Yanagihara, Kangoro Aoki, and Isuke were recorded as owners of fish preserves in Okikamuro in September 1895. In addition, Isuke seems to be recorded as a resident in Agenosho and the Vice President of Oshima Fishermen’s Cooperative in Bocho (Yamaguchi) Who’s Who (June 1901), as I reported previously. As Kyuhachi died in a hospital in Agenosho in 1900, he and Isuke might have moved to Agenosho from Okikamuro several years before. Isuke moved to Kobe in 1901, when former Fishery Act first came into force. It means that Isuke quitted the ancestral fishery business and left Okikamuro though he had promoted to the Vice President of Oshima Fishermen’s Cooperative. He might have thought that the Fishery Act was disadvantageous for owners of fish preserves.
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